NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine’s Pathology Residency offers clinical training that prepares trainees for a successful and rewarding career in pathology.

Our residents gain valuable hands-on experience through a variety of clinical rotations. Training sites include NYU Langone Hospital—Long Island, NYU Langone’s Tisch Hospital, NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, Long Island Jewish Medical Center Northwell Health, and the New York City Medical Examiner Office of Queens. Didactic and research training complement our clinical rotations.

The Pathology Residency curriculum is tailored to a four-year anatomy pathology and clinical pathology track or a three-year anatomy pathology only track. Residents also have elective rotations and on-call responsibilities.

Postgraduate Year 1

To ease the transition from medical student to resident, the first two blocks of training in postgraduate year 1 (PGY-1) serve as an introduction to anatomic and clinical pathology. This introduction starts with a four-week anatomic pathology boot camp where residents become familiar with the department and hospital workflow and learn how to handle their future responsibilities independently. Boot camp includes learning to handle surgical pathology specimens and perform autopsies. During this time, new residents are taught and supervised by pathology assistants, senior residents, and staff pathologists who help ease the transition into the Pathology Residency.

Early in the PGY-1 year, residents participate in a two-week introduction to clinical pathology course, where they rotate through all clinical laboratories and become familiar with the clinical laboratory staff and policies. Residents also participate in laboratory quality didactics. In addition, they complete online training modules in lab management topics and an online training course on the duties of a College of American Pathologists laboratory inspector.

The remainder of the anatomic pathology PGY-1 experience is divided between covering autopsy in our newly renovated state-of-the-art morgue and surgical pathology subspecialty sign-out at NYU Langone Hospital—Long Island. Subspecialty sign-out includes gastrointestinal, genitourinary, breast, gynecologic, pulmonary, and frozen section pathology. Our PGY-1 residents also spend eight weeks working in the blood bank, two weeks learning medical informatics, and four weeks in cytopathology.

Postgraduate Year 2

Our PGY-2 residents spend three four-week blocks in surgical pathology, similar to the PGY-1 subspecialty rotation but with more responsibilities. The four-week autopsy rotation is paired with neuropathology, where residents gain exposure to all neuropathology frozen sections and sign out cases with the neuropathologist.

A four-week cytopathology rotation is spent between Tisch Hospital and Bellevue, where residents focus on gynecologic cytopathology and perform hands-on fine-needle aspiration procedures. Residents have a choice between a four-week or two-week forensic pathology rotation at the New York City Medical Examiner Office of Queens, which exposes residents to various forensic pathology cases and daily didactic lectures. Residents who elect for two weeks of forensic pathology choose a two-week surgical pathology subspecialty elective.

PGY-2 residents continue to gain a foundation in clinical pathology by participating in four-week clinical chemistry and hematology rotations and eight weeks in microbiology. Residents gain additional clinical expertise in these laboratories through assigned virtual MediaLab modules, presentations, multidisciplinary conferences, and one-on-one didactic sessions with the lab directors. Residents also spend four weeks in the hematopathology service at Tisch Hospital.

PGY-2 residents can also elect to participate in a four-week elective rotation in a subspecialty of interest to customize their curriculum to meet their career goals. This elective may be taken outside of the NYU Langone system.

Postgraduate Year 3

Progressive responsibilities in surgical pathology are given to PGY-3 residents as they participate in subspecialty rotations in anatomic pathology. PGY-3 residents rotate through three four-week blocks in gastroenterology, genitourinary, gynecologic, breast, pulmonary, and frozen section pathology. Their four-week PGY-3 autopsy rotation is paired with additional opportunities for biopsy evaluation in the anatomic pathology subspecialty rotations. Residents also gain exposure to electron microscopy. In addition, they have a four-week rotation in cytopathology. A four-week rotation in dermatopathology is offered at Long Island Jewish Medical Center Northwell Health. PGY-3 residents spend another four weeks in hematopathology and molecular pathology rotations at Tisch Hospital to solidify their knowledge in these fields.

Residents also spend four weeks in immunology, hematology, and chemistry. During a four-week rotation in immunohistochemistry, PGY-3 residents perform validation studies of new antibodies. Trainees are also involved in performing internal lab self-inspections and have opportunities to travel for off-site inspections with the College of American Pathologists.

Postgraduate Year 4

Now that residents are almost ready to start a career in pathology, PGY-4 trainees begin to practice as junior-level attendings. Residents are comfortable writing complete surgical pathology reports that are reviewed by their service attendings, who provide them with feedback. Residents independently work up their cases with acceptable limitations and take on more responsibilities in multidisciplinary tumor boards, frozen sections, and training junior residents. PGY-4 residents spend three four-week blocks in surgical pathology subspecialties.

The cytopathology and autopsy four-week rotations grant residents similar graduated responsibilities. The PGY-4 autopsy rotation is also paired with educational opportunities in pediatric pathology. A four-week blood bank rotation is an excellent opportunity for PGY-4 residents to work in this laboratory as junior attendings in a lab director capacity.

In addition, during the PGY-4 year, residents spend a total of 10 weeks in clinical pathology management (CPM) rotations learning important lab director skills in evidence-based practice, instrument validation, and laboratory mathematical statistics. During the CPM-1 rotation, residents focus on laboratory safety and root cause analysis. During the CPM-2 rotation, they focus on quality, laboratory finances, and test utilization. PGY-4 residents also participate in a two-week rotation in cytogenetics.

Finally, three four-week electives in a combination of anatomic pathology electives and clinical pathology electives, with or without research, are available for PGY-4 residents.

Residency On-Call Schedule

Overnight and weekend calls cover anatomic and clinical pathology simultaneously, with an average of once-a-week evening calls for junior residents and less frequent calls for senior residents.

Weekend calls start on Friday at 3:00PM and last until Sunday at 7:00AM. Saturday call includes triage of large surgical pathology specimens, submission of rush biopsies, frozen sections, and responding to clinical pathology calls. The resident on autopsy rotation covers Sunday call. In the first three weekend calls, a PGY-1 resident is accompanied by a senior resident. We offer flexibility in on-call allocation to accommodate individual needs. Generally, calls can be taken from home unless there is a specific reason the resident must come in. Autopsies are performed on weekdays except in rare circumstances.